The end, it will be said, justifies the means, and on the face of it, it is hard to argue with the 247-run defeat inflicted by England on New Zealand after they had bowled them out for 220. To do so they flirted with the rain that delayed the start by three-quarters of an hour and then returned around lunchtime to disrupt things for two and a half more hours, until three o'clock. Thereafter it took 40 minutes to winkle out the last two batsmen, one of them falling to Graeme Swann who, with the earlier wicket of Tim Southee, thereby took his innings tally to six, and 10 in the match for the third time in his career. Elbow problems, it seems, are a thing of the past.

The coup de grace, though, went to Jimmy Anderson who when called up to replace Swann at the Kirkstall Lane end, found the edge of Trent Boult's bat with his third ball of the day to earn his 307th wicket and so equal the Test match haul of Fred Trueman. "There are many great bowlers who have come down the hill from the Kirkstall Lane end," Fred once opined as he watched a bowler of whom he thought little, "and I can tell you he isn't one of them." About Anderson he would be waxing lyrical.

It was a poignant finale to a match that has not been without its controversy and it brings to a conclusion what has in essence been a five-match series this year in which, for the first three, New Zealand played some outstanding cricket and pushed England to the limit. That England survived that period owed much to their resilience but also perhaps to the Kiwis simply not having had enough experience of being in a position to hammer home an advantage. They are better than their ranking of No8 suggests.

At Lord's, England failed to dominate the opening day and lacked some urgency, but since then they have surged ahead. The shellacking administered in the second innings at Lord's must have left some deep scars after all the effort put in by the Kiwis to no avail: at Headingley they gave it their best shot, but against Swann, with the help he got from the footmarks, they proved a spent force.

England will argue that in a match that saw the first day scrubbed out and time lost on the last, they still won by a huge margin and at a canter. So what is the problem? The answer is that it becomes a question of context.

Put England 1‑0 up after the next four Tests they play and there will not be one single person who would advocate that, given a similar situation in the fifth, they should not try and bat Australia into oblivion. But these were different circumstances, an opportunity to show some real ruthlessness in enforcing the follow-on, in the knowledge that the chances of it coming unstuck, at almost precisely 100-1 (three times out of 299 a side have lost after enforcing the follow-on) were all but negligible. Cook made the series safe as a priority, which is sort of understandable, but in so doing missed a beat.

Having made that decision, the manner in which Jonathan Trott went about his business on Sunday evening, even as Cook himself was playing with considerable freedom, was bewildering and cannot just be put down to his mantra of "that's how I play".

His fractiousness when questioned about it told its own story. There is no more secure sight than that of Trott walking out to bat for England. But on this occasion, especially given the pleasant way he batted the following morning, he got it wrong. Even Cook's eventual declaration smacked of undue and unnecessary caution, so that they were almost caught by the weather.

There is some time now to kick over the traces, with the interlude offered by the forthcoming Champions Trophy allowing Andy Flower the freedom to concentrate unencumbered on his Ashes preparations. In terms of his team, most things appear to be in place.

Joe Root has been tremendous, a major talent, and rightly deemed England's player of the series; Swann's elbow operation could make him even better than he was; and David Saker's time with Steven Finn before this last Test has paid real dividends. Oh yes, and we anticipate the return of Kevin Pietersen who, it is said, is just quietly being brought to the boil.

The dominating issue will come at the top of the order, where Nick Compton's troubles have made excruciating watching, so that the career of this intense fellow must be hanging by a thread. The clamour for Root to open with Cook is understandable on the back of that, and he will certainly do that with distinction one day. Compton did not gain a totally ringing endorsement from Cook before the match and did nothing to further his chances in either innings.

The question is whether it is appropriate to rush Root's promotion now. To leave Compton in would be harsh on Jonny Bairstow, who would probably be the casualty, and an early judgment is that Bairstow at No6 and Root opening offers more solidity and runs than the status quo.

In the meantime Compton has several innings in which to re-stake a claim, not least when Somerset play the Australians in the tourists' first warm-up match on 24 June. But it may prove of no avail.